Tales from Earthsea

I could not bring myself to give this book less than 2 stars because Le Guin's writing is as captivating as always. I got absorbed into every story, although I found them to end abruptly - point made; the end. The overall tone of the book seems to be the unmaking, or "unmasking" of the Earthsea of the trilogy. It seems that Roke was founded by women who were supplanted by fanatical, misogynistic men. Ogion, Ged's master's role in stopping the earthquake is greatly over stated. Credit really belongs to a woman teaching magic forbidden by the men on Roke.The Master Summoner, saved by Ged in The Farthest Shore, takes up the Pelnish Lore - used by the enemy in The Farthest Shore for the purpose of keeping women out of the School of Roke. There is clearly room to improve the role of women in the world of the Earthsea Trilogy, but that is no reason to destroy that world.

My children are 10 and 12 - just old enough to have enjoyed the original trilogy. Unfortunately, too little happens in these stories to hold their interest.I enjoyed the original trilogy and I enjoyed Tales from Earthsea even if my children did not. Tehanu I found preachy, a fault that Ms. LeGuin allowed herself to fall into at times during Tales from Earthsea. It seems to me that Ms. LeGuin has been writing apologia for making her original trilogy so male-centered. I would have preferred if she had simply made the original trilogy less male-centered, since Ged's story would not have been affected (or perhaps it would have been deepened with the added complexity of strong female characters), than try balance the trilogy with female-centered stories in which she tries to make a point rather than allow herself to weave a magical tale.

I loved the _Earthsea_ trilogy. I read the series as a child, and wore my first copies to death. I don't think there's a finer fantasy series - one more mythic in nature; one more exacting in its prose.The series was complete in three volumes. It was written by a younger author, and Ursula K Le Guin should not have revisited it. There were objectionable elements, but they were part of Earthsea itself.In _Tehanu_ and more recently in this volume, Ursula has revisted her world for what seem frankly political reasons. We learn that magic (denied to women in the original volumes) was only restricted because of mysogyny. In fact, it turns out that the best magic users are women. And lesbians too - I have no idea why Ursula needed to tell us this. The Old Powers were the source of evil in the first books; in the current ones they are the helpful and healing source of women's magic._Tehanu_ concluded with a deus ex machina. It destroyed the integrity of the first volumes without resolving any of the issues it had raised. There's another story here which reprises that ending - I felt cheated.This book should not have been written. It's a terrible thing, to destroy something as beautiful as _Earthsea_ was. I have the impression that the admitted mysogyny of the first books weighed so heavily on the author that she was determined to pull it down. To cite only one more example: the original trilogy was sparsely sketched in; things were casually mentioned which were part of the background but never used. In this volume Ursula felt it necessary to supply a lumbering appendix giving the sort of tedious minutiae which you might find in a guidebook - history, biology, etymology and so forth.I wish I hadn't read this book, or _Tehanu_. If you haven't read either you will probably be happier leaving the latter ones unread. The original books were flawed but uniquely beautiful. These ones are just your standard fantasy stories, written by an accomplished author.

The stories in this collection should be read in the order they appear. In particular, the last story refers back to the first. The stories are of varying length. "The Finder" is a 106 page novelette. "Darkrose and Diamond" is 35 pages. "The Bones of the Earth" is 20 pages. "On the High Marsh" is 33 pages. The last story, "Dragonfly" is 69 pages long. The author ends the collection with a 30 page description of Earthsea. The stories are about wizards and witches, good and evil, and involve shape changing, healing magic, finding, fire starting, binding spells, weather magic, etc. Like most collections, everyone will have their favorites, liking some stories better than others. I disagree with the author's statement that you should read her other novels first (the author, of course, is interested in selling copies). This collection stands well on its own.

I'm no good at book reviews so I won't try but I read a lot, mostly all Sci fi but I know what I like and I like this book a lot. Having said that, I haven't liked most URSULA K Le GUIN books because I don't care so much for Sci fantasy. I liked the on line reviews that I read so I bought it. I loved it and so bought the rest of the series (6 in all) and I loved them all. So much so that I will be going over the wealth of other novels she has written and see what else appeals to me. Geoff Heap